Doswell integrates the history of office automation and projects its future. He has organized a wide variety of ideas, research, and case studies on office automation, with a strong focus on human and organizational aspects. The material is well presented, organized, and supported. The book would serve as a strong reference for a graduate-level course on this topic.

The book is organized into four sections: “Introduction and Overview,” “Foundations,” “The Application and Lessons of Office Automation,” and “The Future of the Office of the Future.” In fact, it may be over-organized. Each section begins with a table of contents, summary, and introduction, and ends with a review. Each chapter begins with a table of contents, summary, and introduction, and ends with comments and discussion points. Doswell concludes his book with a notes section, highlighting important points in the chapters, an extensive set of references, and subject and author indexes. The use of poorly copied computer-generated screens, graphs, and charts as figures detracts from the overall quality of the work.